The Qur'an & Science

Taken from "The Origin of Man"
by Dr. Maurice Bucaille

Dr. Maurice Bucaille is an eminent French surgeon, scientist,
scholar, and author of "THE BIBLE, THE QUR'AN AND SCIENCE" which contains the
result of his research into the Judeo-Christian Revelation and the Qur'an.
It is a unique contribution in the field of religion and science.

Being an outstanding Scientist, he was selected to treat
the mummy of Merneptah (Pharaoh) which he did. During his visit to Saudi
Arabia he was shown the verses of the Holy Qur'an in which Allah says that
the dead body of the Pharaoh will be preserved as a "Sign" for
posterity. An impartial scientist like Dr. Bucaille, who (being also a Christian)
was conversant with the Biblical version of Pharaoh's story as being drowned
in pursuit of Prophet Moses. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that unknown
to the world till only of late, the Holy Qur'an made definite prediction about
the preservation of the body of that same Pharaoh of Moses' time. This led
Dr. Bucaille to study the Holy Qur'an thoroughly after learning the Arabic
language. The final conclusion of his comparative study of Qur'an and the Bible
is that the statements about scientific phenomena in the Holy Qur'an are perfectly
in conformity with the modern sciences whereas the Biblical narration's on
the same subjects are scientifically entirely unacceptable.

Also watch the video The Book of Signs, which is based on Dr. Maurice Bucaille: "The Bible, The Quran and Science" and "What is the Origin of Man."

FROM THE ORIGIN OF MAN

As most people in the West have been brought up on misconceptions concerning
Islam and the Qur'an; for a large part of my life, I myself was one such person.
Let me cite one or two specific examples to indicate the kind of inaccurate
ideas generally current.

MISCONCEPTIONS

As I grew up, I was always taught that 'Mahomet' was the author of the Qur'an;
I remember seeing French translations bearing this information. I was invariably
told that the 'author' of the Qur'an simply compiled, in a slightly different
form, stories of sacred history taken from the Bible; the 'author' was said
to have added or removed certain passages, while setting forth the principles
and rules of the religion he himself had founded. There are moreover Islamic
scholars today in France whose duties include teaching and who express exactly
these views, although perhaps in a more subtle form. This description of the
origins of the Qur'anic text, which is so out of touch with reality, might
lead one immediately to assume that if there are scientific errors in the Bible,
there must also be errors of this kind in the Qur'an! This is the natural conclusion
to be drawn in such circumstances, but it is based on a misconception. We are
well aware that at the time of Muhammad - the Qur'anic Revelation took place
between 610 and 632 A.D - scientific obscurantism prevailed, both in the Orient
as well as in the West. In France, for example, this period corresponded roughly
to the reign of King Dagobert, the last of the Mrovingians. This approach to
what was supposedly the Qur'anic text may on first sight seem logical, but
when one examines the text with an informed and impartial eye, it becomes clear
that this approach is not at all in keeping with reality. We shall see in a
moment the truth of this statement, which is obvious from the texts.

Whenever there is textual proof of the existence in the Qur'an of statements
that are in agreement with modern knowledge, but which in the Bible are related
in a manner that is scientifically unacceptable, the stock response is that,
during the period separating the two Scriptures, Arab scientists made discoveries
in various disciplines which enabled them to arrive at these supposed adaptations.
This approach takes no account whatsoever of the history of the sciences. The
latter indicates that the great period of Islamic civilizations, during which,
as we know, science made considerable progress, came several centuries after
the communication of the Qur'an to the communication of the Qur'an to man.
Furthermore, scientific history informs us that, as far as the subjects dealt
with in this present book are concerned; no discoveries were made during, the
period separating the Bible from the Qur'an.

When this aspect of the Qur'an is mentioned in the West, however, we are likely
to hear it said that while this may indeed be so, nowhere is this fact referred
to in the translations of the Qur'an which we possess today, or in the prefaces
and commentaries that accompany them.

This is a very judicious remark. Muslim - and indeed non-Muslim - translators
who have produced a French version of the Qur'an are basically men of letters.
More often than not, they mistranslate a passage because they do not possess
the scientific knowledge required to understand its true meaning. The fact
is, however, that in order to translate correctly, one must first understand
what one is reading. A further point is that translators - especially those
mentioned above - - may have been influenced by notes provided by ancient commentators
often came to be regarded as highly authoritative, even though they had no
scientific knowledge - nor indeed had anybody else at that time. They were
incapable of imagining that the texts might contain allusions to secular knowledge,
and thus they could not devote attention to a specific passage by comparing
it to other verses in the Qur'an dealing with the same subject - a process
that often provides the key to the meaning of a word or expression. From this
results the fact that any passage in the Qur'an that gives rise to a comparison
with modern secular knowledge is likely to be unreliably translated.

Very often, the translations are peppered with inaccurate - if not totally
nonsensical - statements. The only way to avoid such errors is to possess a
scientific background and to study the Qur'anic text in the original language.

SCIENTIFIC ERRORS

In the subject of man, as well as the other topics mentioned earlier, it is
not possible to find any corresponding data in the Bible. Furthermore the scientific
errors contained in the Bible - such as those describing man's first appearance
on earth, which, as we have seen, may be deduced from the Genealogies that
figure in Genesis are not to be found in the Qur'an. It is crucial to understand
that such errors could not have been 'edited out' of the Qur'an since the time
they first became apparent: well over a thousand years have elapsed since the
most ancient manuscripts and today's texts of the Qur'an, but these texts are
still absolutely identical. Thus, if Muhammad were the author of the Qur'an
(a theory upheld by some people), it is difficult to see how he could have
spotted the scientific errors in the Bible dealing with such a wide variety
of subjects and have proceeded to eliminate every single one of them when he
came to compose his own text on the same themes. Let us state once again, that
no new scientific facts had been discovered since the time the Bible was written
that might have helped eliminate such errors.

In view of the above, it is imperative
to know the history of the texts, just as it is essential to our understanding
of certain aspects of the Bible for us to be aware, of the conditions in which
it was written. As we have noted earlier, experts in Biblical exegesis consider
the books of Old and New Testaments to be divinely inspired works. Let us now
examine, however, the teachings of Muslim exegetes, who present the Qur'an
in quite a different fashion.

When Muhammad was roughly forty years old, it
was his custom to retire to a retreat just outside Mecca in order to meditate.
It was here that he received a first message from God via the Angel Gabriel,
at a date that corresponds to 610 A.D. After a long period of silence, this
first message was followed by successive revelations spread over some twenty
years. During the Prophet's lifetime, they were both written down and recited
by heart among his first followers. Similarly, the revelations were divided
into suras (chapters) and collected together after the Prophet' death (in 632
A.D.) in a book: the Qur'an. The Book contains the Word of God, to the exclusion
of any human additions. Manuscripts dating from the first century of Islam
authenticate today's text, the other form of authentication being the recitation
by heart of the Qur'an, a practice that has continued unbroken from the time
of the Prophet down to the present day.

UNCORRUPTED NATURE OF THE QUR'AN

In contrast to the Bible, therefore, we are
presented with a text that is none other than the transcript of the Revelation
itself; the only way it can be received and interpreted is literally. The purity
of the revealed text has been greatly emphasized, and the uncorrupted nature
of the Qur'an stems from the following factors:

First, as stated above, fragments of the text were written down during the
Prophet's lifetime; inscribed on tablets, parchments and other materials current
at the time. The Qur'an itself refers to the fact that the text was set down
in writing. We find this in several suras dating from before and after the
Hejira (Muhammad's departure from Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D.) In addition
to the transcription of the text, however, there was also the fact that it
was learned by heart. The text of the Qur'an is much shorter than the Old Testament
and slightly longer than the New Testament. Since it took twenty years for
the Qur'an to be revealed, however, it was easy for the Prophet's followers
to recite it by heart, sura by sura. This process of recitation afforded a
considerable advantage as far as an uncorrupted text was concerned, for it
provided a system of double-checking at the time the definitive text was written
down. This took place several years after the Prophet's death; first under
the caliphate of Abu Bakr, his first successor, and later under the caliphate
of Omar and in particular that of Uthman (644 to 655 A.D.) The latter ordered
an extremely strict recession of the text, which involved checking it against
the recited versions.

TEXT OF QUR'AN UNCORRUPTED

After Muhammad's death, Islam rapidly expanded far beyond the limits of the
area in which it was born. Soon, it included many peoples whose native language
was not Arabic. Very strict steps were taken to ensure that the text of the
Qur'an did not suffer from this expansion of Islam: Uthman sent copies of his
entire recession to the principal centers of the vast Islamic empire. Some
copies still exist today, in more or less complete form, in such places as
Tashkent (U.S.S.R) and Istanbul. Copies have also been discovered that date
from the very first centuries after the Hejira; they are all identical, and
all of them correspond to the earliest manuscripts.

Today's editions of the
Qur'an are all faithful reproductions of the original copies. In the case of
the Qur'an, there are no instances of rewriting or corruption of the text over
the course of time. If the origin of the Qur'an had been similar to those of
the Bible, it would not be unreasonable to suppose that the subjects it raised
would be presented in the light of the ideas influenced by certain opinions
of the time, often derived from myth and superstition. If this were the case,
one might argue that there were untold opportunities for inaccurate assertions,
based on such sources, to find their way into the many and varied subjects
briefly summarized above. In actual fact, however, we find nothing of the kind
in the Qur'an.

But having said this, we should note that the Qur'an is a religious
book par excellence. We should not use statements that have a bearing on secular
knowledge as a pretext to go hunting after any expression of scientific laws.
As stated earlier, all we should seek are reflections on natural phenomena,
phrases occasioned by references to divine omnipotence and designed to emphasize
that omnipotence in the eyes of mankind throughout the ages. The presence of
such reflections in the Qur'an has become particularly significant in modern
times, for their meaning is clearly explained by the data of contemporary knowledge.
This characteristic is specific to the Qur'an.

UNEXPECTED DISCOVERIES

It was not until I had learnt Arabic and read the Qur'an
in the original that I realized the precise meaning of certain verses. Only
then did I make certain discoveries that were astounding. With my basic ideas
on the Qur'an - which to begin with were inaccurate, just as those of most
people in the West - I certainly did not expect to find in the text the statements
that I in fact uncovered. With each new discovery, I was beset with doubt lest
I might be mistaken in my translation or perhaps have provided an interpretation
rather than a true rendering of the Arabic text. Only after consultations with
several specialists in linguistics and exegesis, both Muslim and non-Muslim,
was I convinced that a new concept might be formed from such a study: the compatibility
between the statements in the Qur'an and firmly established data of modern
science with regard to subjects on which nobody at the time of Muhammad - not
even the Prophet himself - could have had access to the knowledge we possess
today. Since then, I have not found in the Qur'an any support given to the
myths or superstitions present at the time the text was communicated to man.
This is not the case for the Bible, whose authors expressed themselves in the
language of their period.

In 'La Bible le Coran et la Science' (The Bible, the
Qur'an and Science), which first appeared in the original French in 1976 and
which subsequently appeared in English in 1978, I set forth the main points
of these findings. On November 9, 1976, I gave a lecture to the Academia de
Medecine (French academy of Medicine) in which I explored the statements of
the origins of man contained in the Qur'an; the title of the lecture was 'Donnees
physiologiques et embryologiques de Coran' (Physiological and Embryological
Data in the Qur'an). I emphasised the fact that these data - which I shall
summarize below - formed part of a much wider study. The following are some
of the points which arise from a reading of the Qur'an:

A concept of the creation
of the world which, while different from the ideas contained in the Bible,
is fully in keeping with today's general theories on the formations of the
universe;

Statements that are in perfect agreement with today's ideas concerning
the movements and evolution of the heavenly bodies;

A prediction of the conquest of space;

Notions concerning the water cycle in nature and the earth's relief,
which were not proven correct until many centuries later.

All of these data are bound to amaze anyone who approaches them in an objective
spirit. They add a much wider dimension to the problem studied in the present
work. The basic point remains the same, however: we must surely be in the presence
of facts which place a heavy strain on our natural propensity for explaining
everything in materialistic terms, for the existence in the Qur'an of these
scientific statements appears as a challenge to human explanations.

That does not mean to say, however, that the statements in the Qur'an - especially
those concerning man - may all of them be examined in the light of the findings
of modern science. The creation of man as described in both the Bible and
the Qur'an totally eludes scientific investigation of the event per se.

Similarly, when the New Testament or the Qur'an informs us that Jesus was
not born of a father, in the biological sense of the term, we cannot counter
this Scriptural statement by saying that there is no example in the human
species of an individual having been formed without receiving the paternal
chromosomes that make up one half of its genetic inheritance. Science does
not explain miracles, for by definition miracles are inexplicable, thus, when
we read in both the Qur'an and the Bible that man was molded from the ground,
we are in fact learning a fundamental religious principle: Man returns from
where he came, for from the place he is buried, he will rise again on the
judgment.

Side by side with the main religious aspect of such reflections
on man, we find in the Qur'an statements on man that refer to strictly material
facts. They are quite amazing when one approaches them for the first time.
For example, the Qur'an describes the origins of life in general and devotes
a great deal of space to the morphological transformation undergone by man,
repeatedly emphasizing the fact that God fashioned him as He willed. We likewise
discover statements on human reproduction that are expressed in precise terms that
lend themselves to comparison with the secular knowledge we today possess
on the subject.

INTEREST TO MEN OF SCIENCE

The many statements in the Qur'an that may thus be compared with modern knowledge
are by no means easy to find. In preparing the study published in 1976, I
was unable to draw on any previous works known in the West, for there were
none. All I could refer to were a few works in Arabic dealing with themes
treated in the Qur'an that were of interest to men of science - there was,
however, no overall study. Over and above this, research of this kind requires
scientific knowledge covering many different disciplines. It is not easy,
however, for Islamologists to acquire such knowledge, for they possess a mainly
literary background. Indeed, such questions hardly seem to occupy a place
in their field of classic Islamology, at least as far as the West is concerned.
Only a scientist, thoroughly acquainted with Arabic literature, can draw comparisons
between the Qur'anic text - for which he must be able to read Arabic - and
the data supplied by modern knowledge.